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Carulla Foundations promotes early childhood education in Colombia through initiative AeioTu

Carulla Foundation was founded by José Carulla Soler, then owner of the Carulla chain of department stores, in 1962. For 47 years the foundation provided scholarships to thousands of low-income employees of the company.

Paper Recycling enterprise in Albania focuses on including smaller businesses and improving the environment

Edipack is a leading paper recycling and packaging material enterprise, located in one of the environmentally most hazardous places in Albania. With the aim of including poor and vulnerable people in its supply chain and generating income opportunities, Edipack cooperates with three NGOs, which...

Partnership helps to improve training and production facilities for those with sight and hearing impairments in Turkmenistan

One of the most noticeable absences in policies with regards to disabilities in Turkmenistan is its lack of incentives to help integrate people with physical disabilities into society and the economy. One of the main NGOs in Turkmenistan working with disabled is the Deaf and Blind Society (DBS).

Coffee company benefits small scale Indonesian farmers and increases employment

P.T. Toarco Jaya, subsidiary of Key Coffee Ltd., a large Japanese company, established a brand of specialty coffee called “Toarco Toraja” by procuring Arabica coffee from Indonesian farmers, and by running its own coffee plantation in the country.

Partnership between UNDP and World LP Gas Association provides clean energy to rural areas of Morocco

In many developing countries, including Morocco, there is still a high dependence on traditional biomass fuel in rural areas, which has many negative consequences, such as deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, health issues and gender inequality. Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) represents a safe and...

A sucessful community/private/public partnership model for waste recycling in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the large proportion of urban population combined with limited waste collection systems poses serious social, environmental and health problems. A social enterprise called Waste Concern has found a way to transform solid waste into organic compost using a low cost, low-tech and...

Public-private partnerships provide microfinance to remote regions of Voronezh Oblast

The Voronezh Oblast State Fund for Small Business Support (hereafter referred to as ‘the Fund’) in cooperation with a multitude of partners started in 2009 to provide microfinance services and mobile banking for micro-and small businesses in the remote regions of Voronezh Oblast. The...

Toyola Charcoal Stove: Improving the Environment and Health of the Poor in Ghana

Toyola Energy Limited is a company that operates in Ghana. It produces and distributes energy efficient charcoal stoves and solar lanterns for domestic users in the urban and rural parts of Ghana. Toyola entrepreneurs Suraj Wahab and Ernest Kyei – two artisans - have implemented an innovative...

TEMASOL: Providing Energy Access to Remote Rural Households in Morocco

In Morocco, despite the government’s efforts to expand its grid-based coverage, about 9% of the rural population could not be cost-effectively connected. Given that Morocco enjoys 3,000 hours of sun per year, solar energy was therefore thought to be a cost-effective alternative. TEMASOL is a...

Tedcor model helps out small businesses with refuse removal in South Africa

Tedcor started its community-based refuse removal system in 1992. Today, using Tedcor's model, over 80 trained entrepreneurs operate their own small businesses in 16 local authorities. They provide employment to more than 1,000 historically disadvantaged people and supply waste removal services to...

SELCO partners with India's state banks to bring sunlight to rural India

SELCO India is a Bangalore‐based social enterprise that makes solar lighting technology accessible to the economically impoverished people in India. SELCO’s mission is based on a simple but powerful idea that the economic conditions of the impoverished can be improved substantially if they are made...

Saraman partners to provide affordable and green earthquake-Safe Schools and Housing

Housing is a major challenge for the rising young population of developing countries. For households who have their dwelling as their main asset and shelter, the robustness of the construction is crucial, especially in earthquake-prone areas. Yet, in low-income markets, conventional construction...

Partnerships allow Rural Finance Corporation to promote rural development in Moldova

Rural Finance Corporation (RFC) is a non-bank for-profit financial institution that has been functioning on the financial market of the Republic of Moldova for 10 years. Its mission is to directly take action against poverty in Moldova and promote rural development, offering favorable financial...

PROMASOL partners to provide green energy and create jobs in Morocco

For a country like Morocco with 3,000 hours of sun per year, totally depending on imports for its energy needs seems like a paradox. Being aware of such a situation, Moroccan authorities aimed to benefit from renewable sources of energy to produce at least 10% of the country’s energy needs by 2010....

Working with the community to grow coconut tree business in Indonesia

Due to the abundance and ubiquity of coconut trees and plantations in Indonesia, there are potentially enormous social and commercial benefits that can be gained from integrating local communities in the production of high value coconut-based products. Indonesia has about 3.7 million hectare of...

Parternships in Belarus providing affordable Health Care to the Poor

Cardiovascular diseases are common among the population of Belarus. Belarus lacks quick cardiac diagnostic and treatment services in many remote areas outside of major cities. Telemedicine offers a solution to this problem by connecting a doctor in a local hospital with a cardiac specialist in a...

Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts: Crafting a Brighter Tomorrow for Disavantaged Women and Minorities in Vietnam

Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts (MVH) is a small and successful business, founded in 1990 by two passionate and energetic women. Building on the belief that social development is intricately tied to economic self‐reliance, Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts reaches out to artisans in underdeveloped areas and...

Turkish Trailblazer: Boosting Rural Areas through Business Investment

This is a study about a female entrepreneur in Turkey who achieved business success by breaking from the conventional practices preferred by others in her industry and investing in poorer parts of Turkey. Clothing, the industry in which the entrepreneur is operating, is one of the Turkish economy’s...

Multinational Corporations fund Hathay Bunano Proshikshan Society (HBPS), an NGO trying to promote the emploment of women in Bangladesh

While many NGOs in Bangladesh try to generate employment for the poor through microcredit, Hathay Bunano Proshikhan Samity (HBPS) chose to provide direct employment opportunities for poor women in rural areas, with special preference given to disadvantaged groups. Since 2005, the company produces...

Creating Value For All: Community-Based Tourism in Kyrgyzstan

Community-based tourism (CBT)-a type of a tourism that is owned and managed by the local community and its members- has emerged as a mechanism to facilitate locally based tourism activities in many developing countries, including the Kyrgyz Republic. The first CBT group was established in May 2000...